Errol Spence Jr suffered the second loss of his career when he was beaten by Tim Tszyu on Saturday, with that defeat causing him to retire from the sport. Now, two-division world champion Tim Bradley has offered his thoughts on the American’s performance.
Spence lost for the first time when he came up short against Terence Crawford when bidding for the undisputed welterweight world title in 2023, then a three-year stretch of inactivity left fans questioning whether the Texas-based operator would ever fight again.
Yet, on Saturday night, the former unified WBC, WBA and IBF welterweight world champion made his ring return, appearing in a middleweight clash against Tszyu in Australia.
From the opening bell onwards, it appeared as though Spence’s previous injuries, combined with his age and inactivity, had caught up with him and that his ability had faded as a result, lacking the power or speed to cause his Aussie opponent too much trouble.
Spence’s mentality saw him remain competitive in the fight and last the distance, after which a unanimous-decision and career-best win was awarded to the home fighter. On his YouTube channel, Bradley noted that Spence’s balance was off throughout the affair and admitted the performance was ‘hard to watch.’
“That was hard to watch, I’m not going to lie to y’all man. There was times when I was watching that s**t and I felt like jumping through the T.V. and helping Spence.”
“His body betrayed his a** last night. It goes to show that, you know what, you can have that mental, but your body is going to do what it is going to do once that age sets in.”
“It looked like Spence was on ice skates at times when he got hit, his whole body trembled. His balance was all off, it was like he was in high heels or some s**t. He was leaning forward, top-heavy like a motherf***a.”
Shortly after the judges’ verdict was confirmed, Spence revealed that the bout would be his last, walking away from boxing at the age of 36 with a record of 28-2.
